Tuesday 10-28-08

Well ... Monday afternoon was interesting. Little Miss M hit the 4 o'clock "fruit cake" hour. It's like someone hits a button and turns the happy hyper on. Which frankly we don't mind but it is what comes next that is a problem. Happy Hyper always ends in big yucky rage.

I turned the video camera on to see how the afternoon went since M was hyper but not raging. It should be good footage to share with behavior analyst and whoever else thinks they can help this group. She was playing aggressively but with in limits and then all the sudden wham-O she started hitting siblings and trying to bite. When she could not reach them she started biting herself. I got the sibs out of the pool and into the house and told them to lock the door. M came out of the pool raging and out of control.

I got a towel for her and she wanted to beat with that so that was no good. But she finally took it herself. In the middle of her screaming and attempting to hit me I said "do you want to go on the trampoline with Mom?" She said, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, well all white." And just that quick the switch flipped. We got on the trampoline, the jumping motion is supposed to help encourage the brain out of the fight/flight mode. Swinging works also so we moved on to that next. We spent about 10 minutes with this and then she came inside and helped me make dinner. See, loo loo land.

Tuesday - The morning was a struggle but everyone held it together and got to school on time. C received an award for being the only Kindergartner who can say and write his numbers 1 - 100. He seemed confused as to why one would get an award for this but we were proud! M who is also in Kindergarten saw me and I went over and gave a quick huge and kiss and took her picture too. She did not get an award this time. Not happy about it either as you may well have imagined at this point.

When I picked them up from school we did not even make it out of the parking lot before M lost it big time. I had to send V for help and she did great. She went and got M's teacher. Miss Keeney came to help and sadly was attacked. M took her shoe off first thing and through it in Miss Keeney's face. Miss Keeney had to help Mom keep M safe by holding on to her so M did not run in the road. People walking by as if they have never seen a Kindergartner taking out 2 adults in the school parking lot. Imagine that?

Well we made it through that and finally calmed to the point of taking a walk, which helped. We had a 4 o'clock appointment with the private portion of Department of Children and Families. This is the part where you volunteer for help. Well M did not make it through that meeting with out a blow out. Our social worker Peter now has a clear picture of what help we and M need. He tried to help and so she hit and spit on him. Dad was holding on to her with a safe hug so she could not hit Mr. Peter and M proceeded to Pee on the floor and announce "I'm not cleaning that up!"

We were able to finish the meeting and once we got in the car M fell asleep. When we got home I cleaned her up and feed her dinner in bed. She was so exhausted.

The other kids ate dinner and did homework. V got a lousy report card. So disappointing. The situation here is really affecting her and it is showing in school performance. She isn't turning in assignments and her grades reflect it. So we will be having a meeting with the teacher.

C on the other had has mastered everything that he will be doing for the rest of the year in Kindergarten. He is getting board and asking for "some spelling work." This is only the first grading period so I don't know what they are going to do for him. Although smart wise he can easily do 1st grade work I don't think he can handle it socially and the change of moving him up would be traumatic.

M did well on her report card. She is right on track at the start of the year so we hope she can continue to build on that. It was noted that her excessive tardiness interferes with her morning work. But ... we can't hog tie her and toss her in the car so she gets there when we can get her to go. These things are all documented by her Psychiatrist. As C says "what a darn shame about that."